Henry Craik, ed. English Prose. 1916.Vol. II. Sixteenth Century to the Restoration

The White Bird

By James Howell (c. 15941666)

TO MR. E. D.

From Familiar Letters

SIRI thank you a thousand times for the noble entertainment you gave me at Berry, and the pains you took in shewing me the antiquities of that place. In requital, I can tell you of a strange thing I saw lately here, and I believe tis true: as I passed by St. Dunstans in Fleet Street the last Saturday, I stepped into a lapidary, or stone-cutters shop, to treat with the master for a stone to be put upon my fathers tomb: and casting my eyes up and down, I spied a huge marble with a large inscription upon it, which was thus to my best remembrance:

Here lies hard by James Oxenham, the son of the said John, who died a child in his cradle a little after, and such a bird was seen fluttering about his head, a little before he expired, which vanished afterwards.